About

The legal team at Louis Dreyfus is exposed to political and global changes on a daily basis. In the past two years the legal team has faced reorganisation of the Dubai team and a merger of its wider European and Middle East and Africa regions into a single EMEA super-region. ‘I think we set the benchmark for being “lean and agile” before the term became strategically adopted by our management’, says chief legal officer Keir Ashton. The central team of six lawyers based in Geneva deal with strategic M&A projects and has assisted the growth of the company through acquisitions and joint venture agreements, in particular with respect to key logistics projects in Russia, Ukraine and Egypt. By establishing expertise clusters the team has spread know-how through the team and deepened skills. The legal team has, says Ashton, driven ‘a strategic approach to dispute resolution and dispute management by real time cost-benefit evaluation and mapping resource allocation to strategic goals of the business. I consider myself really lucky to have such a strong internal team of like-minded people. We have a common view of the world and succeed or fail together. The mutual support is palpable’. The Swiss team has also been heavily involved in dealing with political turbulence in Russia and Ukraine. Ashton adds, ‘our business has had to weather the storm but we remain a very strong player in both markets and part of this is down to the response and tirelessness of the local legal teams’.